To The Moon

U.S. stocks ended the week lower amid market volatility; prices for new homes in China continued to slide.

🇺🇸 S&P 500: -0.64% 📉

🇺🇸 Nasdaq: -0.96% 📉

🇪🇺 Stoxx 600 Index: -0.31% 📉

🇯🇵 Nikkei 225 Index: -0.26% 📉

🇭🇰Hang Seng: -1.42%📉

🇨🇳CSI 300: 0.22%📈

 • Wall Street retreated on Friday, ending the week lower, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite down -0.6% and -1.0% respectively, with the technology sector suffering bigger losses as the first "Triple Witching Day" of 2024 (Market volatility caused by the expiry of equity-linked derivatives contracts, index options and futures).

Quadruple Witching

• The March 2024 U.S. Consumer Confidence Index edged down slightly to 76.5, reaching its lowest level in three months and slightly below expectations of 76.9, as a small improvement in personal financial conditions was offset by a small decline in expectations for business conditions .

• Asia-Pacific stocks were broadly lower, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng extending losses, down -1.4% after another official report showed house prices tumbled in February, China kept key policy rates unchanged, while the Nikkei 225 fell -0.3%, Investors Caution ahead of next week's Bank of Japan interest rate policy decision.

• Prices of new homes in China fell 1.4% year-on-year in February 2024, sharper than the 0.7% fall the previous month and marking the eighth consecutive month of declines despite various support measures from Beijing.

• Bank of China added RMB 1.45 trillion in new RMB loans in February, below expectations of RMB 1.54 trillion.

💡 Things you need to know today: 💡

1. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) launched a CNY 387 billion medium-term lending facility (MLF) operation in March but kept interest rates unchanged at 2.5%*, in line with consensus expectations.

POBC

2. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is launching a private investigation into Reddit's data licensing practices after the company filed for an initial public offering in February.

3. Chinese high-end electric vehicle company Nio revealed plans to launch a new brand for the mass market in May, aiming to expand its market share beyond the high-end electric vehicle market.

As announced last week, Nio has teamed up with Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) to develop batteries with longer lives as a way of lowering overall costs for users. The two companies aim to churn out EV batteries that can last for as long as 15 years, nearly double the current average lifespan of such batteries of about eight years, which could help EV users save tens of thousands of yuan. This is without doubt a great news for $NIO Inc.(NIO)$  share price in short term.

Unlike domestic rivals such as BYD and Xpeng, which have cut prices to spur sales in a sluggish market, Nio always keeps the prices of its cars – all sold at more than 300,000 yuan – unchanged. However, the price car by its rivals like $BYD COMPANY(01211)$  and $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$  $Rivian Automotive, Inc.(RIVN)$  will stimulate and boost their revenues by selling more cars. Without doubt, this is the strategy that works in short term with most direct impact on the revenue. Out of all the EVs company, the worst belongs to $Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc.(FFIE)$  without doubt. The share price has been down by 99.99% from peak, a total loss for many investors. However, instead of looking bearish towards it, I am targeting a bullish bet for it as I guess the risk of being worse than current status will be minimal. This is just a purely guess bet. No much fundamental or technical analysis we can do on such a meme stock.

4. Russian President Vladimir Putin won a post-Soviet record landslide victory in Russia's election on Sunday, meaning he will start a new six-year term if he completes it Term, he will become Russia's longest-serving leader in more than 200 years.

Putin

✅ Key Points:

In addition to the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, investors will also be closely watching this week's Bank of Japan (BoJ) interest rate decision, especially following successful wage negotiations that will see wages see their largest jump in more than three decades.

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